After years of having a governors debate in the year of statewide elections, the Mississippi Press Association will NOT offer a debate as previously planned between candidates Haley Barbour and John Arthur Eaves.
I called the Mississippi Press Association and was told that the format had been changed from debate to press conference style.
The Lt. Governor's debate will still be held as planned.
No other comment was offered.
Involved parties recieved notice by letter today.
This looks suspiciously like Barbour threatened a boycott because he didn't want to be on the stage at the same time as Eaves. By doing so he robs voters and the press of the chance to see the two of them together. Haley Barbour, don't be a coward, stand and debate!
More Details will be added as they come available.
- Update 12:54am 6/8/07 - Contrary to what was recieved from at least 2 sources including a representative at the Mississippi Press Association is the following from their blog posted 30 minutes after our original post:
"The non-debate gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 22."
As soon as we can confirm either way, a new post will be published.
If a story breaks on Cotton Mouth does it make a sound? :)
ReplyDeleteI love us. But the answer to the question is probably not. So far, nobody who's buying ink by the barrel cares that we exist.
ReplyDeleteI was at what I remember being the MS Press debate in '03. I think it was on the Coast.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic thing to behold. It was the first time they'd been on stage together and there were no gloves, no punches pulled. But I remember it feeling oddly high minded.
In my favorite exchange, Musgrove said "We have the most efficient medicaid system in the nation. Only 2% of our total budget goes to administrative costs." And Barbour said " And fraud is rampant. If you spent one more percent on administration you'd get a lower cost system" and Musgrove replied " But you're talking about taking money away from people who need it and I don't believe in that."
I'd love to see something like that this time.
-m